Eric Clapton's best-selling album was recorded 32 years ago today

British guitarist, singer, and songwriter Eric Clapton is well known as one of the most influential guitarists in rock music. He has had an extensive solo career and has been a member of numerous bands, most famously with the Yardbirds and Cream. In 1992, Clapton would record his best-selling album, Unplugged.

On January 16, 1992, at Bray Studios in England, Clapton would record what would become the best-selling live album of all time. The session was recorded for the MTV Unplugged series, of which the original aired from 1989 to 1999. After telling the small audience, "That's it," Clapton would explain that several of the songs needed to be rerecorded, adding, "If you don't mind, I don't mind." This would result in the outstanding "Rollin' and Tumblin'" recording.

Clapton's Unplugged was nominated for nine Grammy's in 1993, of which he won six, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance - Male, Best Rock Vocal Performance – Male, and Best Rock Song. "Tears in Heaven" would also win three Grammys, but this would be from the soundtrack of the movie Rush.

In a 1992 interview with Daphne Barak, Clapton had this to say regarding "Tears in Heaven," a song written for the film Rush but also to deal with the grief of the tragic loss of his four-year-old son.

"It was in the back of my head but it didn't really have a reason for being until I was scoring this movie ... then it sort of had a reason to be. And it is a little ambiguous because it could be taken to be about Conor but it also is meant to be part of the film. I almost subconsciously used music for myself as a healing agent, and lo and behold, it worked... I have got a great deal of happiness and a great deal of healing from music."

- Eric Clapton

Below is possibly the first ever performance of "Tears in Heaven."

Clapton is the only three-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and according to the website "Three inductions, three words: 'Clapton is God.'" He has been inducted as a solo artist and with the blues-rock band the Yardbirds and the psychedelic supergroup Cream. The man is a living legend listed in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.